Israel Arrests Dozens in West Bank City

KARIN LAUB

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, June 23, 2003

Associated Press Writer

Israel arrested more than 130 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday, targeting Hamas as the Palestinian government awaited word on whether the Islamic militant group would agree to a cease-fire.

The Israelis also charged five Israeli Arab leaders with funneling at least $6.8 million to Hamas in a trial that comes amid increasing tension between the government and the Arab community.

Palestinian officials and Egyptian mediators said they expect a positive response soon from Hamas and other militant groups to a proposal to halt attacks on Israelis.

"There is a feeling of optimism that something like this (a truce) will be announced in the next few days," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Tuesday in Cairo.

Hamas repeatedly has walked away from the Egyptian-brokered truce efforts, but the Islamic militant group is feeling the squeeze after the Iraq war. Washington has urged Arab nations to stop funding Hamas, Syria closed the offices of Palestinian militant groups and Israel threatened to assassinate Hamas leaders.

An agreement by Palestinian militias to suspend their armed uprising could be a major breakthrough for a U.S.-backed peace plan that envisions Palestinian statehood by 2005. The so-called "road map" has been hung up over the two sides' inability to end 33 months of fighting, with each saying the other must take the first step.

Israeli officials remained deeply suspicious, saying a truce is just a militant ploy to win time to prepare for more shootings and bombings.

The terms of the emerging deal between Abbas and the militias were not clear. One Palestinian mediator said Monday the truce will be open-ended and apply not only to Israel but also the West Bank and Gaza Strip _ a key condition for Israel.

However, a leader of one of the armed groups said on condition of anonymity that Hamas will only accept a three-month truce. Leaders of the smaller Islamic Jihad group are trying to persuade activists to accept a limited deal, but are facing stiff opposition, he said.

Israel has said it will not halt its campaign against militants unless Palestinian security forces take tough action _ something Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has said he cannot do.

Early Tuesday, troops swept through the West Bank city of Hebron, a Hamas stronghold, and detained more than 130 Palestinians. The arrests came just days after troops shot and killed Abdullah Kawasme, the militant group's leader in Hebron. Israel blames him for the deaths of 52 Israelis.

The detainees, including relatives of Hamas suicide bombers and Kawasme's sister-in-law, were taken to an Israeli base on the outskirts of Hebron. They sat in a large, open-sided tent, handcuffed and blindfolded, and were taken in groups to a nearby building for interrogation.

Adnan Kawasme, 17, a relative of the slain Hamas leader, said troops came to his house and used rifle butts to push him along. The high-school student said he was released after eight hours.

In the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, meanwhile, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheik Raed Salah, and four others were charged with funneling at least $6.8 million to Hamas and having contacts with an Iranian agent in Lebanon.

The trial comes at a time when the United States, which has labeled Hamas a terrorist organization, is trying to dry up funding to the Islamic militant group.

The 12-count indictment said Salah and the other defendants transferred money from Hamas institutions abroad to group activists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hundreds of Arabs, many of them carrying green Islamic banners, protested outside the Haifa courthouse. Several Israeli Arab leaders have said the trial is meant to intimidate Israel's 1.2 million-strong Arab community.

Israeli officials said a Hamas-Abbas understanding might not necessarily be acceptable, noting that under the peace plan, the Palestinian Authority must disarm militias, not court them. At best, Israel would accept an internal Palestinian arrangement as a brief precursor to a crackdown, officials said.

A top Israeli security official said the truce talks give Hamas too much leverage.

"It's unacceptable for the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the United States to agree to a situation in which a certain Hamas leader decides when progress (on the road map) will be made," said Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad. "It's an easy solution that will cost us in blood."

A Palestinian uprising leader, Marwan Barghouti, has lent his prestige to the talks, writing cease-fire proposals from his Israeli prison cell, according to a source close to the negotiations.

Also Tuesday, in the Gaza Strip, troops shot and wounded a Palestinian trying to crawl under the fence of a Jewish settlement, an army spokesman said. The man was found to be carrying two knives, the army said.